Chapter 6: The kiss!

So I'm sorry about the lack of updates on this story. I had a serious bout of writer's block, and it was so bad that I was thinking about scrapping this story all together. But I'm back on track and so is this story, So yes…By the way, there is a bit of strong language used here, just so you know.

Thanks again for all the reviews and sorry I didn't have a chance to respond to any of them from last chapter, but just know that I absolutely love them!

Without further ado, here's chapter 6!

Disclaimer: Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers. I do not own them.

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Chapter 6: Nick

The first time Joe and Lilly kissed, it was…tasty. Seriously, that's the only way you could describe it.

Joe and Lilly had been dating for three months when Joe came home from a date with Lilly looking less than pleased.

"Okay," I said as he plopped onto the couch where I had been attempting to write a song. "That's not the typical 'I just went on the best date ever with Lilly' face. What gives?"

"Nothing much…" Joe muttered in response. "Just the fact that I'm an idiot."

My lips twitched, but I tried to suppress the smile that was fighting to the surface. "Oh, that."

Joe grimaced at me. "Cute."

"Seriously, what did you do? It couldn't have been that bad," I cajoled teasingly. It really couldn't have been that bad, could it?

"I haven't kissed her yet." Oh. That was bad.

"Why not?" I exclaimed, a little louder than I intended to, I realized, when Kevin stuck his head into the room.

"Why not what?" he asked, curious.

"Joe hasn't kissed Lilly yet," I informed Kevin. Joe groaned next to me.

"Why not?" he demanded incredulously, echoing my earlier words. "You've been dating for three months!"

"I know!" Joe exclaimed. "Believe me, I know! And I've kissed her hand, her cheek, her forehead, even her nose…but when it comes to her lips I seem to have a little trouble." I snorted at that.

"A little trouble?" Kevin asked, arching an eyebrow at our brother.

"Okay, fine, I totally freak out and do something stupid." I really wanted to laugh. I really did. Joe was usually pretty good with girls—not up to Kevin's level of romantic, but he was never this level of idiotic.

"Such as…" I prompted.

"Um…well, she was going to give me a kiss goodnight tonight but I chickened out at the last minute and…" Joe stopped in the middle of his sentence, unable to go on and burying his face in his hands.

"And?" Kevin and I asked eagerly. The suspense was practically killing us.

"I shook her hand," he groaned, and although his voice was a bit muffled I could hear the frustration and mortification.

"You didn't." I couldn't believe. No, I wouldn't believe it.

"I did." He looked at us and it seemed like he wanted the couch to swallow him whole right then.

Kevin was the one who asked the important question. "What did she say?"

Joe grimaced. "She didn't really say much of anything. She stared at my hand in disbelief for a minute, then her face got all blank and she said good night in this really stony voice and went inside."

"I have absolutely nothing to say to that," Kevin admitted honestly. "I don't know how you're going to fix it –" He was cut off by my cell phone.

"Hey Miley," I said brightly, answering the phone without bothering to check the caller ID. I recognized the ring tone.

"Where is your brother?" Uh oh. I knew that tone of voice. It meant trouble.

"Uh—well—you see—" I stuttered, stalling for time and attempting to spare my brother from the wrath of my angry girlfriend.

"Joe. Now," she snapped. I meekly handed the phone over to the boy in question.

Kevin and I couldn't exactly hear what she said, but from the look on Joe's face it wasn't pretty. He tried to say something or protest but it seemed like she always cut him off. About five minutes later, I distinctly heard the words "FIX IT!" and he shut off the phone and handed it back to me.

"I'm dead," he moaned.

"You're not dead," I consoled him, trying to think of something, anything he could do to fix this. It wasn't really the not-kissing-her-yet thing…it was the handshaking thing that was the worst. "Just apologize. Maybe buy her flowers, a necklace?"

"Yeah," Kevin agreed. "Then we'll…well, we'll figure something out."

Joe nodded absentmindedly. "It's just that…what if I mess it up? I mean, I know I've kissed people before but with Lilly it's…it's different, you know? I don't want to screw it up."

"That's why you haven't kissed her yet?" Kevin asked disbelievingly. "Because you don't want to screw it up?" I had to admit, I had kind of a hard time seeing it myself. I mean Joe was just so self-assured most of the time…

"Well, yeah." Joe looked like it was the most natural thing in the world and…well, he was right. I was a nervous wreck before I kissed Miley for the first time. "What if I kiss her and it's the wrong moment or I do the wrong thing or…"

"You won't. Because it's Lilly and you lo—you like her a lot," I reassured him.

Joe straightened considerably as if suddenly struck by a revelation. "I love her," he whispered. "That's why it's so hard. Because I'm in love with her."

"Then when it's right, you'll know," Kevin said patting him on the shoulder. And leaving him to contemplate that, we exited the room.

Joe apologized to Lilly the next morning, and apparently it worked (I'm telling you, it was the flowers that he sent that did the trick). It seemed like everything was somewhat normal between them…they still talked and texted all the time, but whenever we were with them we felt a little bit of tension.

In an effort to kind of alleviate that, Miley and I decided to have a little dinner for the six of us at my house, figuring that everyone would be more comfortable when we were all together. Miley, Lilly and Oliver brought over some Jell-O, a chocolate cake and a cherry pie while my brothers and I made some salad, spaghetti and meatballs, and mashed potatoes.

Our parents had decided that it was a good idea to leave us all alone in the house, so they had gone out. Big mistake.

We ate dinner in the kitchen rather than the dinging room; I was seated next to Miley, who was sitting next to Oliver, and across from me was Kevin, then Joe and Lilly. Dinner was going really well until Lilly brought up Oliver's little crush. She and Miley knew who it was but my brothers and I didn't.

"So who is she Oliver?" I asked, insanely curious.

"You don't want to know," the other boy mumbled, blushing and going back to eating his mashed potatoes.

"Oh come on, Ollie. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's –" Lilly started to say but Oliver cut her off.

"Lilly," he said warningly. "Don't make me throw this at you." He had scooped up a glob of mashed potatoes and gravy and aimed it at his friend.

"You wouldn't," she taunted. "It's Mikayl—AHH!" She screamed as a glob of mashed potatoes hit her on the forehead. She gasped as she wiped it off her forehead with a napkin and Oliver smirked at her.

Joe looked torn between amusement and the need to defend his girlfriend; he chose the latter. "Hey, you can't do that to her!" Joe exclaimed, scooping up a handful of spaghetti and nailing Oliver in the face with it.

Miley cracked up at the sight of him, which of course earned her a plate of salad being tossed on her lap. But instead of retaliating against Oliver, she decided to get me involved and grabbed a handful of mashed potatoes and smeared it on my face. Meanwhile, Lilly had taken a plate of spaghetti and dumped it on Kevin's head while he was laughing his head off at everybody else. He then got picked up the cake and smashed it in Joe's face, who in turn wiped some of it off and spread it all over Lilly's face, and from that point, it was on. It was a madhouse, food flying left and right

At some point, we delved into the pie and the Jell-O, and Joe even went to the fridge and started throwing eggs. It didn't stop until we couldn't move because we were laughing so hard. We were all standing somewhat around the table again with towels to wipe off as much food off of ourselves as we could.

"Mom's gonna kill us," Kevin groaned. I agreed. There was no way we were gonna get this all cleaned up by the time they got home. But it was worth it. Food fights were so much fun!

I looked at Miley, who was trying to get mashed potatoes out of her hair next to me, Oliver, who was scooping some food off of his face and eating it, Kevin, who was already starting to clean up, and then at Joe and Lilly, who were standing in each others' arms and laughing uproariously. They looked ridiculous; a mixture of Jell-O, mashed potatoes, spaghetti, pie and egg completely coated their clothes. Surprisingly, despite everything else that the two were covered in, there was only chocolate cake smeared on their faces.

"I can't believe you started all this, Joe!" she teased. Joe looked affronted.

"Me? Me? You were the one who just had to tease Oliver!" he protested.

"But you were the one who tossed the spaghetti at him!" she shot back.

"I was defending you!" Joe had a point there, I had to admit as I chuckled to myself.

That made Lilly smile. "You were, weren't you?" She hugged him tightly.

The expression on Joe's face changed, from one of mock indignation to one that was very difficult to place. "Yeah," he whispered. And that's when he did it. Chocolate covered faces and all, in front of all of us, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. I resisted the urge to cheer, and then I had to resist the urge to gag when they didn't come back up for air until a few minutes later. I know I shouldn't have been watching them, but it was hard to look away…like a train wreck or a car accident, except, you know…positive.

"Yum," Lilly murmured as Joe pulled back. And she kissed him again.

And I knew then that it didn't matter to them what the parents were going to say when they got back as they got lost in their own little world.

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I was stunned, scared, shocked, when I heard that Lilly might not wake up. I looked at Miley and saw her pale, stricken face and I took her hand in mine. A few minutes ago she was begging to know something, anything. But now…I straightened my spine and tightened my hand around hers. We had to be strong, all of us, for Lilly and for Joe.

Joe.

His face was rough and haggard and looked like he was about to collapse at any second. "Can I see her?" he asked in an anguished whisper.

The doctor hesitated. "I'm not sure if you want to see her right now, Mr. Jonas."

"Please?" Joe pleaded. "I need to see her."

Giving a curt nod, the doctor relented. "Only for a minute or two. And just you, Mr. Jonas." And he led Joe to Lilly's recovery room. My brother emerged a few minutes later, looking even more shaken than he had when he entered.

Without a word, he sat back down again and buried his head in his hands. It reminded me so much of that day when he was worried about kissing Lilly. And now, here he was worried about having to live without her.

The doctor wouldn't let any of the rest of us see her as it was 6:00 in the morning and visiting hours didn't start til 8:00 a.m. While we were waiting, Miley and I somehow managed to convince Joe to shower and change into scrubs until we got him some clean clothes. Kevin finally let himself be led back to his recovery room. Jackson convinced my parents and Frankie to go home and get some rest, and they went with him in his car. Robby Ray went on a clothes run for everybody, and while we knew that there was no point in us staying, Joe, Miley, Oliver, Heather and I stayed and waited until we could visit Lilly.

When Robby Ray returned with fresh clothes for everyone, he also had some big news. "The police found the guy that did it."

This information certainly made everyone sit up straighter and take notice.

"They saw him driving Joe's car, pulled him over and found a gun on him, as well as some blood stains on his clothes. They think that it's Lilly's," Robby Ray told us gently.

My heart clenched at that last sentence. The blood could be Lilly's. But they caught the bastard. The law would make sure he was punished for what he did to our family. Miley squeeze my hand tightly.

"Where is he?" Joe asked, barely concealed rage simmering beneath the surface.

"At the Malibu police station," Robby Ray answered. "They have him in a holding cell."

Without a word, Joe jumped to his feet and stormed off. Miley and I exchanged worried looks and I headed off after him. He was walking so quickly that I had to run to catch up to him as he was exiting the hospital.

"Where are you going?" I demanded, attempting to catch my breath. Joe didn't stop. He just kept walking. He didn't answer either. "Come on, Joe. Where are you going?"

"To kill the fucking bastard," he finally growled, a mixture of fury and sorrow etched into every line of his face.

"No, you're not," I told him, trying to stay calm. I had to admit, his plan sounded good right about now, but we couldn't do that.

"Wanna bet?" he challenged, whirling around to face me. It frightened me, the expression on his face; he was my brother and even I was afraid that he might hit me. "By the time I'm done with him, he'll wish he had never been born."

"Yeah, but you'll be in jail, Joe. He's in a police station. You can't do anything to him there!" I exclaimed trying to reason with him. This wasn't my brother, this violent and vengeful person, and I wanted him back. We needed him back.

"Doesn't matter. As long as he suffers and as long as I kill him, it'll be worth it." He turned and began walking again.

"What about Lilly, huh, Joe?" That stopped him in his tracks. Good. I was getting through to him. "What about what will happen when Lilly wakes up and finds out that you're in jail? Do you think that'll make her happy? When Lilly wakes up, she'll need you by her side, not rotting away in some cell. When she wakes up, Joe. When, not if. She'll need you."

This seemed to take all the wind out of his sales and he slumped in defeat. "I want him to suffer."

"He will," I promised as I took him back up to the hospital waiting room, not sure if this was a promise that could be fulfilled. "He will."

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So yay! There it was! I was actually really pleased with the kiss so that at least makes me happy. Next chapter: The night of the shooting, so get ready!

I love getting reviews, so if you guys wanna leave any that would make me super happy!

Thanks for reading!
--v